wfn.org | Latin American bishop denounces racism as sin of power

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 7, 2002       News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202)
546-87227Washington     10-21-31-32-34-71B{089}

NOTE:  For related coverage, see UMNS story #088.

By Joretta Purdue*

SEATTLE (UMNS) - Racism is about pain and power, and for Christians it is
"one of the most violent expressions of human evil and sin," according to an
Argentine Methodist bishop, 

Bishop Aldo M. Etchegoyen told the United Methodist Commission on Religion
and Race that only people who have power can be racist.

"From my pastoral perspective in Argentina and Latin America, racism as well
as xenophobia have their origin in the use of power for the subjugation and
economic exploitation of humanity," he said at the commission's March 1-3
meeting. "For some persons, racism may be the color of the skin or the
nationality, but behind all of that there is always the issue of power."

Etchegoyen was president of the Council of Evangelical Methodist Churches of
Latin America and the Caribbean (CIEMAL) from 1983 to 1989. He was elected
bishop of the Argentine Evangelical Methodist Church in 1989. He retired in
2000 and is serving as interim head of CIEMAL.

When the military was in power in Argentina, from about 1976 to 1983, the
regime was very racist, Etchegoyen said. "The worst thing that could happen
to a person (then) was to be in prison and be a Jewish woman." 

The black and native people had already been eliminated during the previous
century, he said. He cited Argentina's history, first as a Spanish colony
until 1810 and then as a new nation. The country had 54 native communities
at the time of independence, but two periods of "cleaning" during the 1800s
wiped them out.

"The exclusion of the native communities had an economic motivation," he
said. Their lands were wanted, and military force was used to serve economic
power. The black people had been brought in to serve the white people. Many
black people were sent as soldiers to fight the native people and died in
the fighting. A Yellow Fever epidemic from about 1871 to 1874 took a heavy
toll, and by the end of the century the black population had vanished.

"Racism in Latin America means death," Etchegoyen asserted. When Columbus
arrived in America in 1492, the island of La Espanola (Hispaniola) had 1
million people, but that number had fallen to 16,000 by 1520, he said.

Throughout Latin America, wars of exploration and conquest killed many.
Diseases from Europe, the harsh conditions of slavery -- particularly in the
mines -- and suicide as an alternative to being captured resulted in the
deaths of 65 million native people who had lived in the area. More than 9
million slaves were brought to Latin America from Africa between 1520 and
1880.  

"Those slaves worked like animals on plantations," the bishop said. "They
were 'things,' 'merchandise.'" He cited references that said the Africans
rarely survived more than seven years of continuous labor.

The result of all the racism was a transfer of the wealth of Latin America
to Europe between 1492 and 1660. "The silver sent from Latin America,
especially Bolivia, to Europe (was worth) three times the total of the money
in European banks during this time," he said.

"This process continues today through the mechanism of the external debts,"
Etchegoyen observed. "In 1975, the external debt of Latin America and the
Caribbean was $69 billion. Since that year, we pay $795 billion, and in
1998, the debt was $660 billion." Argentina must pay the International
Monetary Fund $35,000 a minute just to pay the interest, he said.

"This is a new way of slavery, not only in Latin America and the Caribbean
but also in Africa," he declared.

"Racism is in a strong relation to capitalism," he said. "The wrong use of
power is producing a new racism around the world to perform (the work of)
the capitalistic system."  

In this time of globalization, the use of power produces discrimination and
exclusion, the bishop said. A few predominantly white, rich countries hold
the economic power, and the rest of the world is being marginalized by
globalization, he explained. "This social problem is growing rapidly."

"Globalization is an expression of racism," he said.

A panel of five U.S. United Methodist caucus staff representatives responded
to Etchegoyen's report.

"Racism definitely is alive, kicking and jumping over us today," said Inday
Day, executive director of the National Federation of Asian American United
Methodists.

Filipinos died fighting in more than 1,000 uprisings during four centuries
of colonial rule, first by Spain and then the United States, she said.
Chinese immigrants worked in the United States, especially in building
railroads, but faced discriminatory laws such as those prohibiting marriage,
she said.

"In financial racism, the developing countries are all dependent on the rich
countries," Day asserted. In Asia, even the countries that were not
colonized are dependent on the rich countries, she added.

"The church tends to follow society rather than lead society in the right we
are called to do," said Betty Henderson, staff head of Black Methodists for
Church Renewal.
 
She reminded the commission that African Americans helped form the United
Methodist Church. "Some of us chose to remain in a racist church" to help it
become what it is called to be, she said. The church split twice over
slavery, she noted: once before the Civil War and again when the Central
Jurisdiction was formed in 1939 because white Southerners did not want to
work with other Christians who were black.

Citing a current form of economic racism, she noted that interest rates tend
to be higher in African-American communities. "The church is called to work
with the marginalized. That is our responsibility - whatever community we
are in." She urged the church to look into the issue of reparations.

The Rev. Sione Motu'ahala, executive director of the Pacific Islander
National Caucus of United Methodists, described how the various groups of
island immigrants left his church rather than continue with those from
another island.

"The main aim of the church is to build unity in diversity," he affirmed. 

It is necessary to feel uncomfortable every day if one is to follow Jesus,
he remarked. The problem today is "we Christian leaders want to be popular.
To me, that is a sin." He reminded his audience that Christians are
following a person who was unpopular and ended up on a cross.

"We talk about racism between the races." Motu'ahala asked, "How about the
racism within one race?" He urged people not to look back but to look
forward and to work for peace in the world.

The Rev. Alvin Deer, who heads the Native American International Caucus,
welcomed the bishop and the commission to his homeland on behalf of all
native people. He then posed the question, "Does racism infect all of
humanity?" Is it like a virus? If so, what is the host that allows it to
travel from land to land and from people to people? he asked.

"Genocide is the result of religious racism," he declared. Christians who
came to America were driven by an Old Testament mentality to cleanse the
land of its occupants rather than the doctrine found in the Gospels. There
is a need not only for reparations but for reconciliation, he said.

Capitalism does not just exploit the land, but also the people, Deer said.
The Europeans who came to America were exploited too, he added.

"In social, economic and religious groups, racism must be exposed," said
Mary Silva, executive director of Metodistas Associados Representando la
Causa de Hispano-Americanos (MARCHA).
She called racism a crime against the Creator, an injustice and a sin.

"This society and this church are still waiting for us to come and say
clearly that racism is a sin," she urged. "Jesus is calling us to stop
separating ourselves from the needy and powerless. In spite of the racism we
see, we must come together."
# # #
*Purdue is news director of United Methodist News Service's Washington
office.

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United Methodist News Service
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